In the shadows of World War II, trust becomes the greatest risk of all for two strangers.December 1943. In the years before the rise of Hitler, the Gerber family’s summer cottage was filled with laughter. Now, as deep drifts of snow blanket the Black Forest, German dissenter Franka Gerber is alone and hopeless. Fervor and brutality have swept through her homeland, taking away both her father and her brother and leaving her with no reason to live.
That is, until she discovers an unconscious airman lying in the snow wearing a Luftwaffe uniform, his parachute flapping in the wind. Unwilling to let him die, Franka takes him to her family’s isolated cabin despite her hatred for the regime he represents. But when it turns out that he is not who he seems, Franka begins a race against time to unravel the mystery of the airman’s true identity. Their tenuous bond becomes as inseparable as it is dangerous. Hunted by the Gestapo, can they trust each other enough to join forces on a mission that could change the face of the war and their own lives forever?
Paperback, 270 pages
Published
March 1st 2018
by Lake Union Publishing
Terri's Thoughts
I randomly came across this book when I was looking for my next audio book. A WWII read that I have not yet discovered, how could I turn it down?
As the synopsis suggests, this story begins with Franka discovering the man in the Luftwaffe uniform and then gradually tells the history of each character that brought them to this point as they tiptoe (not literally as you will discover upon reading) around each other trying to determine if they can trust each other.
As you can expect, the tale depicts the horrors of WWII Germany as well as the measures people will take to protect their beliefs and their country. It also depicts the inner conflicts of those who struggle with the moral questions of war and its consequences.
This story was compelling and well paced. I enjoyed Dempsey's writing style and found I got through the story rather quickly which is a small feat on its own when it is an audio book. The only issue I had was I didn't really feel the emotional connection between Franka and her airman however their back stories was enough to overcome this.
Overall a solid read for fans of this genre.
I randomly came across this book when I was looking for my next audio book. A WWII read that I have not yet discovered, how could I turn it down?
As the synopsis suggests, this story begins with Franka discovering the man in the Luftwaffe uniform and then gradually tells the history of each character that brought them to this point as they tiptoe (not literally as you will discover upon reading) around each other trying to determine if they can trust each other.
As you can expect, the tale depicts the horrors of WWII Germany as well as the measures people will take to protect their beliefs and their country. It also depicts the inner conflicts of those who struggle with the moral questions of war and its consequences.
This story was compelling and well paced. I enjoyed Dempsey's writing style and found I got through the story rather quickly which is a small feat on its own when it is an audio book. The only issue I had was I didn't really feel the emotional connection between Franka and her airman however their back stories was enough to overcome this.
Overall a solid read for fans of this genre.
About the Author
Eoin Dempsey was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. He grew up in the beautiful Dublin suburb of Dalkey, where he and his friends would jump into the icy waters of the Irish Sea (during summertime) to prove their manliness. Eoin had a fantastic time attending Blackrock College, where he played rugby (poorly) and did his best to coast his way through. Eoin’s first ambition was to play rugby for Ireland. Due to a lack of talent, he soon abandoned for that goal the more reasoned path of the rock star. He played in bands through his teens and well into his twenties, before harsh reality came calling, and his dreams of being the next Keith Moon faded.
Eoin made the ill-reasoned decision to study business in university, and was accepted into University College Dublin to study Commerce in 1995. While Eoin did attend college, studying wasn’t his priority there.
He met his beautiful wife, Jill, while travelling to the USA in 1997, though it would be several years before he managed to break her down and they got together as a couple. It was during Eoin’s second stint in the USA, which he spent with his brother in New York City, that he decided to start writing a novel, for the express purpose of impressing women. This effort was met with mixed success. Eoin finished his first novel a year later. The over hundred and fifty rejections he received from publishers didn’t discourage him. He pinned them to his wall. After spending a year in Australia, where he was fired from many jobs, including picking red and green peppers and toiling for scallops miles out to sea on a fishing trawler, he returned home and decided to write again. Another novel followed while he phoned it in at a number of jobs in financial services in Dublin.
By this time Eoin had managed to convince Jill, the girl he’d met in the USA years before to move over to Dublin. She did so in 2004. It was the best negotiation he ever undertook. They were married in 2007. Jill’s more brilliant negotiating skills led Eoin to move to her hometown of Philadelphia in 2008, just in time for the economy to collapse. The plan to live with her parents for a few weeks turned into eighteen months, as Eoin struggled to retain employment in a fractured economy. It was during this time that he wrote FINDING REBECCA, which would go on to be his first published novel and sell over a hundred fifty thousand copies.
Eoin finally found a job that he enjoyed in 2010, when he began teaching computers to elementary school children. He released his second novel, THE BOGSIDE BOYS, about the conflict in Northern Ireland, in 2015.
His new novel, WHITE ROSE, BLACK FOREST, was released on March 1st 2018. He has several more books in the works.
Eoin and Jill have two beautiful sons, Robbie, who was born in 2015, and Sam, born in 2017. Eoin enjoys playing with them and marveling at how much more talented they are at the sports that he loves, particularly golf.
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